Taking our eyes off of the prize

Matthew 6:33 - But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Those words are some incredibly sound advice given by our Lord Jesus Christ during the sermon on the Mount. For nearly 2000 years they have been available to Christians as wise counsel about the practical application of living out our faith. Yet, they are often ignored as we let the smaller things in life crowd out the vision of the Kingdom of God in our thinking.

This has been on my mind for a while now as I progress through seminary. I've seen so many churches take their eyes off of the prize, and get locked up into bickering, schism, name-calling, church splits and all manner of ungodly behavior over seemingly minor things.

Here are a few of the examples I have seen churches split over:
1. Should the pastor's wife be compelled to wear a hat?
2. Removal of a beloved worship leader and replacement with someone who plays a different style of music.
3. Factional fighting for power/control within a congregation resulting in "churning" of pastors who cannot get past the initial 2-year call.
4. Removal of a pastor who violated church bylaws on divorce and remarriage.
5. Removal of a beloved member of the church staff.
6. Gossip, backbiting and strife used to wield power behind the scenes in a church.

Looking back at each of these, I ask the question: "Where is the kingdom of God in all of this?" Do any of these examples warrant blowing up a congregation and destroying the unity of a church? Is clothing, music or personnel worth ruining the reputation of the Bride of Christ?

Please hear me. I am NOT excusing ungodly leadership or behavior. If a church leader or pastor is engaging in ungodly behavior, they should be dealt with according to the scriptures and the leadership of the church. What I am talking about here are preferences that become "sacred cows" and the ensuing aftermath when someones sacred cow gets slaughtered.

Paul takes on the personnel issue in 1 Corinthians 3. He is writing to a church that is in discord because some say they are followers of Paul and others are followers of Apollos. That sounds familiar in the list I printed above. Neither Paul or Apollos are anything but followers of God. The church has taken their eyes off of God, and is focusing on the men. They are missing the message because they are so worried about the messenger! That is a tragic mistake that we see repeated over and over again.

Imagine if Paul and Apollos both fell over dead. Who would they follow then? The next apostle who showed up? They should be following God, and listening to the messengers who speak for him. But they became so wrapped up in the temporal things that they are missing the heavenly things.

My friends, I fear that is what many today are doing. We worry so much about the who (is delivering), and how (it is being delivered) of the message that we are missing the point of what (is being said) in the message. I know that I've been guilty in the past of letting the temporal overrule the eternal in my thinking, and I've asked God for forgiveness for that. I pray that each of you, during your prayer time, will ask God the question: "Is there something that I hold dear that is more important than building the Kingdom of God and its righteousness?" If there is, confess that to God and ask for his help in rearranging your priorities. The Kingdom of God awaits your help.

Weddings

As a future minister, I pray that I never have a wedding like this. Do you think he was still welcome at the reception?

Worst Best Man Ever @ Yahoo! Video

As the campaign winds down

Keep this thought in mind. Don't say that you weren't warned.

How does stuff like this happen?

This happened less than 15 miles from where I grew up. How on earth do you manage a system of "improperly screening out complaints about Calista’s treatment going back 11 years, which the OCO said, “met the definition of mental injury and child maltreatment.” I just don't understand it. And to top it off, the people who did this were allowed to retire. Why weren't they charged? Does state law protect state employees who so horribly botch their jobs that children are chained to their beds and die in house fires?

This is truly sickening.

Christmas Gift Idea

If you are struggling with what to get the person who has everything, consider this gift list from the International Justice Mission.

This holiday season, millions of children, women and men wait urgently for only one gift: Freedom. As we celebrate the great hope of this season, consider sharing that hope by giving a Gift of Freedom to someone special – it is a gift that will bring rescue and renewed hope to victims of violent oppression.

IJM’s 2008 Gifts of Freedom include:

Gifts of Freedom
A half day of Investigative work, $25
A day of Advocacy, $70
A week of Aftercare, $280
A day of Investigations and Aftercare, $90
A day of Investigations, Advocacy and Aftercare, $160

Regional Gifts of Freedom
Empower IJM staff in the region of your choice to bring rescue to victims of violent oppression. Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia, $500, $1000, $5000

Visit the 2008 Gift of Freedom Holiday Catalog today and give freedom to everyone on your list!

Sadly, this may be true

Click on the link below and enjoy the clip. Sadly, for many people, this may be true.

A movie you might want to go see

Call and Response is a movie about the 27 million most terrifying secrets in the world. Check to see if it is showing near you. For more info on the topic, go to IJM. Warning, the video clip may be disconcerting, especially to kids.

A helpful remembering tool

In the 5th and 6th grade catechism class I am teaching, we are working on many things. But one of them is the memorization of the Apostle's Creed. Sometimes someone just nails it, and Rich Mullins did in this song. Enjoy, as it reminds you of the basics of the Christian faith.

Smile

Just watch and chuckle.

Isn't this the truth

You have to love Real Life Adventures. It is a comic that hits on a great number of funny things that are true to life.

Hide your wallets

The bailout bill is moving through the Senate it is being larded up with pork. Soooooooooweeeeeeeeeeee!

The same people who allowed this happen are now in charge of the cleanup. Taxpayer beware.

Watch the clip and ignore the partisanship. If I could find one without it I would use that one. The point is that the Congress knew four years ago that this was going to be a problem. Now, Ms. Waters, we do have a crisis at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and the taxpayers are bailing them out.



You may want to contact your member of Congress and your Senators before they stick it to you.

While you are being spanked by Washington and Wall Street

Have a little fun with it. If you can't read it, go here.

Then hide your wallet.

Thanks to Kurt who shamelessly ripped this off from his friend Joel.

Wow. The Lord has a way of smacking me on the head

I was reading in my devotions this morning from Spiritual Classics. There is an essay by Catherine Marshall entitled A fasting from criticalness that is well worth reading. I have reprinted it here for you:

A Fasting on Criticalness

by Catherine Marshall

The Lord continues to deal with me about my critical spirit, convicting me that I have been wrong to judge any person or situation: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matt. 7:1-2; NIV)

One morning last week He gave me an assignment: for one day I was to go on a “fast” from criticism. I was not to criticize anybody about anything.

Into my mind crowded all the usual objections. “But then what happens to value judgments? You Yourself, Lord, spoke of ‘righteous judgment.’ How could society operate without standards and limits?”

All such resistance was brushed aside. “Just obey Me without questioning: an absolute fast on any critical statements for this day.”

As I pondered this assignment, I realized there was an even humorous side to this kind of fast. What did the Lord want to show me?

The Experiment

For the first half of the day, I simply felt a void, almost as if I had been wiped out as a person. This was especially true at lunch with my husband, Len, my mother, son Jeff, and my secretary Jeanne Sevigny, present. Several topics came up (school prayer, abortion, the ERA amendment) about which I had definite opinions. I listened to the others and kept silent. Barbed comments on the tip of my tongue about certain world leaders were suppressed. In our talkative family no one seemed to notice.

Bemused, I noticed that my comments were not missed. The federal government, the judicial system, and the institutional church could apparently get along fine without my penetrating observations. But still I didn’t see what this fast on criticism was accomplishing—until mid-afternoon.

For several years I had been praying for one talented young man whose life had gotten sidetracked. Perhaps my prayers for him had been too negative. That afternoon, a specific, positive vision for this life was dropped into my mind with God’s unmistakable hallmark on it—joy.

Ideas began to flow in a way I had not experienced in years. Now it was apparent what the Lord wanted me to see. My critical nature had not corrected a single one of the multitudinous things I found fault with. What it had done was to stifle my own creativity—in prayer, in relationships, perhaps even in writing—ideas that He wanted to give me.

Last Sunday night in a Bible study group, I told of my Day’s Fast experiment. The response was startling. Many admitted that criticalness was the chief problem in their offices, or in their marriages, or with their teenage children.

The Result

My own character flaw here is not going to be corrected overnight. But in thinking this problem through the past few days, I find the most solid Scriptural basis possible for dealing with it. (The Greek word translated “judge” in King James, becomes “criticize” in Moffat.) All through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets Himself squarely against our seeing other people and life situations through this negative lens. What He is showing me so far can be summed up as follows:

1. A critical spirit focuses us on ourselves and makes us unhappy. We lose perspective and humor.
2. A critical spirit blocks the positive creative thoughts God longs to give us.
3. A critical spirit can prevent good relationships between individuals and often produces retaliatory criticalness.
4. Criticalness blocks the work of the Spirit of God: love, good will, mercy.
5. Whenever we see something genuinely wrong in another person’s behavior, rather than criticize him or her directly, or – far worse – gripe about him behind his back, we should ask the Spirit of God to do the correction needed.

Convicted of the true destructiveness of a critical mind-set, on my knees I am repeating this prayer: “Lord, I repent of this sin of judgment. I am deeply sorry for having committed so gross an offense against You and against myself so continually. I claim Your promise of forgiveness and seek a new beginning.”

Does that ring your bell? It certainly did mine. I'm a basically optimistic person, but I do have a critical spirit at times. I lose the ability to see the good in people and situations and only see that which I consider to be wrong. And it takes me into a dark place where the Spirit of God is hard to find.

Can I ask each of you to fast one day each week from criticalness? Can we agree to each take one day where we do not disparage anyone, anything or any situation? I think if we did that, we can expect that God will rearrange many of our thoughts and allow us to go places with Him that we have not been in some time. I know that I need to do this, and I pray that you will join me.

The following scripture follows this thought quite nicely:

Isaiah 58:3-9

3 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness ^[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

I wonder if Jim Leyland tried this?

With all of the pitching problems the Tigers had this year, it might have been worth a shot.

I just cannot resist

Read this headline and chuckle. The town is near where I grew up.

There may be hope

Bill Ford Jr., son of the Lions hapless owner, sounds off. This is the first time I can remember him directly opposing his father's decision.


The photos below are courtesy of Sean Baligian at WDFN.

Looking for a good concert?

Then check this out. It supports the International Justice Mission and Food for the Hungry.

A promise that I cling to

On this day when we commemorate one of the saddest days in our nation's history, this song came to mind. It is my fervent hope and prayer that God will make everything glorious in this mess of a world. My hope is not wishful thinking, but rather confidence that the Creator of Universe will do what he said and redeem this planet and everything on it. That process began with Christ's death at Calvary and creation continues to groan awaiting its redeemer. This song clip expresses the thought pretty well.



Come Lord Jesus, Come.

A sad anniversary

It was a morning like this seven years ago when the world changed. Clear blue skies, cool weather, just a glorious day. I was on my way to work after a Dr. appt when I first heard of the attacks on the World Trade Center. By the time I arrived at work, the Pentagon had been hit and President Bush had issued his statement from the elementary school in Florida.

Watch the video clip and offer your prayers for those whose lives were forever changed. The actions of 19 men and their trainers set in motion a catastrophic series of events that continues to this day.

Enough

No Mas! No Mas! Please stop!

All of you well-intentioned souls out there who are sending me email breathlessly spouting "Obama is a closet Muslim" or "Palin is a racist" allegations. Please stop. I really don't care and I throw them away. Most any email I receive that has more than one FW: in it is automatically discarded. I've come to realize that most of them (90+%) are factually inaccurate if not downright slanderous.

This article leads to a site you can use to check your political rumors before you share them. This particular article is about Ms. Palin, but there are links to the Obama rumors as well. It bears a very poor witness on us as Christians if we are knowingly spreading slanderous and/or untrue information about someone. It seems to be breaking the Commandment about bearing false witness against our neighbor, at least to me.

So I ask that you at a minimum remove me from your list. I would encourage you to examine your heart/motives/facts before you send them. It is the Christian thing to do.